


Sixteen

by sayhannahliz



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan, The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan
Genre: Angst, F/M, High School, Post-The Heroes of Olympus, many years later
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-26
Updated: 2019-05-21
Packaged: 2019-10-17 06:17:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17554979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sayhannahliz/pseuds/sayhannahliz
Summary: The people in my dreams never spoke. They just screamed.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This is my second ever fanfiction. It's a bit of a wild concept, so stick with me.

The people in my dreams never spoke. They just screamed.

Sometimes I dreamed of the ocean. There would be no sound except for the rhythmic flow of the waves on the shore. Those dreams were the good dreams, the ones I was lucky enough to get once a week at most. Keyword: at most.

In my more consistent dreams, the screaming would overpower everything, and the dream was never quite the same. One night I would be on the beach, or rather, standing in the middle of the water. I would see my parents and my older sister on the left side of the shore, and two ghostly figures on the other side. I would try my best to swim to my family, which should’ve been an easy task for me since I was a strong swimmer. But the tide would pull me away from them. I would be propelled towards the screaming figures to my right. I’d wake up drenched in sweat and crying hysterically before I could see their faces.

In another dream, I would be surrounded by giants. I always tried to run away, but my legs wouldn’t work, much like how I couldn’t swim in my dreams. The screams were weighing me down. Skeleton hands would grab at me and I tried my best to dodge them, but one pair of hands would always grab me eventually. This one was always a woman, and her screams chilled me to the core every night. I was pulled away from her at the end of every dream, once again never seeing any faces.

My dreams used to hurt me. My mother started taking me to my doctor around age five after she kept finding me in the mornings covered in bruises; finger marks running down my arms, black eyes, and terrible, purple and blue bruises across my shoulder blades. They’d fade after about an hour, so thankfully no one ever asked questions. The bruises stopped showing up as often after a few years, but the pain remains consistent. One day, my first day of third grade actually, I woke up with a swollen ankle so painful that it nearly caused me to be late for school. My doctor told me that it was unintentionally self-inflicted, ‘psychosomatic’ or something, all caused by my nightmares tricking my body into thinking dreams were a reality. I was also the worst case of night terrors he’d ever encountered. Go me, i guess. When I turned ten, I was prescribed a new trial medicine, and things had been beginning to get better. I stopped being in so much pain and I finally started getting a healthy amount of sleep. Everyone was happier. That’s when my mother and father started to seem more relaxed, my sister became more loving towards me, and I started to have more courage in my day to day life. The dreams never fully went away, but the pain they caused subsided and I learned how to handle them. It felt as if a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders.

Everything changed when I turned sixteen.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's a new girl at school.

My Friday morning was about as dull as all the other days of the week had been. It was the offseason for me, so I had no practices or meets to look forward to that night. Some of my friends from school were planning on going to parties that weekend, but that wasn’t really my scene. My ideal Friday night consisted of marathons of The Office and playing board games with my family. Besides, my sister would be home that night, and I hadn’t seen her in a while. She was busy finishing up her final year in college and hardly ever came back. It was her spring break, however, and lucky for me, she had decided to skip the elaborate vacation and spend the weekend at the beach with us. The thought of getting to hang out with her motivated me to focus on the mundane tasks thrown at me on that Friday; algebra mostly. 

It was during my lunch period when I noticed the new kid. She caught my attention immediately; sitting in the corner of the brightly lit lunchroom, dressed in dark clothing that I’m sure was meant to make her look less noticeable, but had the opposite effect. Her ears were covered with earrings that her short, dark hair didn’t conceal. She was idly playing with a watch on her wrist but kept looking around every now and then, as if she was looking for someone. She caught my eyes and I felt as if I’d been shocked by a static-y blanket or something. I felt my face growing red and instantly turned away. 

“Earth to Soph,” my friend Sam said. He must’ve been trying to get my attention for a while because he and the rest of my small group of friends were staring at me with amused looks on their faces. And they had started throwing things at me. I turned just in time to dodge a grape. 

“Sorry,” I said with a roll of my eyes. “Who’s the new girl? Over in the corner?” They all looked behind me at the same time and I hoped that the girl didn’t notice. 

“The punk chick?” asked Billie between bites of her apple. “She’s in my gym class. She’s here on an archery scholarship apparently.” 

“We have archery?” I asked. This was the first time I’d heard of archery at AHS. 

Billie just shrugged, obviously unbothered. “I guess we do.” 

“You should join, Sophie,” Louis said from across the table, his mouth still full with the sandwich he was eating. “Wear your Katniss Everdeen costume? I’ll be your Gale,” he finished with a wink. I blushed. Louis was a huge flirt. 

“We’re team Peeta, actually,” Billie said as she put her arm around me protectively. Besides my biological older sister, Billie felt like a sister to me. 

“And we’re also not going to get into this debate again. Finnick is still the hottest,” said my friend Monty as he sat down with a thump on my right. He didn’t bother to pull his lunch out from his lunch bag before spilling that day’s drama. 

“So here’s the TEA,” Monty said. We all groaned, and I tried not to laugh. I had referred to drama as ‘tea’ once at home and my father, the English teacher, about threw a fit. Monty launched into the local school drama, who was dating who and other foolish things like that. I only half paid attention, still counting down the hours until I could see my sister again until Monty mentioned the new girl. 

“She’s literally so smart, but she has such an attitude,” Monty said. “She’s in my algebra class, and she wasn’t paying attention but when the teacher called on her, she answered a tough question like she’d been working on the Pythagorean theorem since she was in kindergarten. Like it was old news.” 

Billie sighed as she packed up her lunch bag.

“She’s probably some rebellious rich student then. Her parents are probably loaded, she’s probably been to all the best schools in the area and is gonna take my spot as valedicto-” 

“Billie!” We all muttered in unison. 

“Bill, graduation is two years away,” Louis said. “If I hear you worry about who is going to be valedictorian one more time, I’m transferring.” 

The bell rang while we laughed at Louis’s threat. We exchanged ‘see you later’s and went on our separate ways. I risked one last glance behind me, towards the corner of the lunchroom. The girl was still there, staring at me, food hardly touched. I shuddered and went to exit into the hallway. I couldn’t. 

The door was gone.

Maybe I just went the wrong way, I thought. 

I laughed to myself and went to find the door, but the laugh was too loud. There was no one else in the lunchroom. All the commotion was gone. I couldn’t even hear it in the hallway. The doors were all gone. 

Thoroughly creeped out and 65% certain I was having a panic attack, I turned around and came face to face with the new girl. 

“Sorry about that, Sophie.” The girl's voice was too wise, too mature for her age. 

“Who-” I struggled to breathe. It felt as if the air in there was electrified and I was scared. 

“My name is Thalia Grace. We need to talk.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have one excuse for why this took so long to update:   
> COLLEGE.   
> It's hard, fam. But I'm on summer break now! Yay! Hopefully, I can update this more frequently.


End file.
